One of my New Years Resolutions for this year was to be a more giving, charitable person. There have come to be a number of frequent homeless people at the closest Metro stop to where I live and in lieu of simply handing them some change or a bite to eat, I wanted to give them something more personal.

Many of you may remember that I was knitting a scarf for a certain homeless man at the Friendship Heights Metro. I recently finished it, and while it may not be what most grown men want to wear, I figured that it would be appreciated nonetheless, especially for the thought that went into making it:

I had been bringing the scarf all around with me for weeks, hoping to see the specific homeless man I had in mind as I was knitting this. Finally, this morning I had the scarf in tote, and the man was there. I mustered up all my shy nerves and approached the man. This was our exchange:

Me: Here, I made you this.

Homeless Man [opens up my bag and peers in…]: Oh, I’ll just lose it.

Me: Oh. …Are you sure??

Man: Yeah, I just lost my gloves the other day.

Me: …Sorry…

I’m pretty disappointed that after all that effort to knit the scarf and bring it around with me every day in search of its targeted owner, he didn’t even want or even take it. It made me think if I would have rather he take it anyways and then lose it. I do appreciate he was honest with me, but what- he couldn’t have just accepted the gift and then give it to someone else who wouldn’t lose it? It was such a let down.

So I’m left with the scarf. I suppose I could find a different homeless person to try to give it to. If that doesn’t work, I could always donate it to a charity or clothing drive. It’s a nice scarf! Someone out there will be thankful for it…